A/N: I'm so sorry! Hurricanes of vacation and tornadoes of sloth hit my writing schedule, and now it's under eight feet of excuses and I'm blaming FEMA.
None of you were even CLOSE on the legilimens, now I know what Rowling feels like.
Thoth Father of Magic: You should have known it wasn't Snape, since I already mentioned that this was after the scene in his pensieve, so you know he was already at Hogwarts.
Disclaimer: If you think I'd just post this for free if I owned Harry Potter you probably can't understand this sentence, anyway.
–––––––––––––
Chapter 4: Not another two!
–––––––––––––
1975
"Saunders, Mordecai," came McGonagall's crisp voice.
Mordecai walked to the stool in front of the teachers' table and sat, as McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat over his head; this time it didn't cover his whole head, but came down to the bridge of his nose.
Hmmmm… interesting… The hat didn't have anything else to say for several moments, as it sifted through Mordecai's sixteen years of admittedly interesting memories. Where to put you, where to put you? You have the intellect of a Ravenclaw–
Really? Mordecai thought in surprise.
And the humility of a Hufflepuff–
Not the duffers!
But if I put you there, you might have self-image problems, and those are more common in Slytherin.
Really?
Yes, many of them are either incredibly arrogant or have no confidence at all, but they hide it better than the others.
Mordecai was rather surprised by this revelation; it had never occurred to him that some Slytherins might be under-confident.
You're also as unobservant as a Gryffindor.
Get on with it! Words couldn't describe annoying it was to have a talking hat tell you you were unobservant and might have hidden self-image problems.
And as impatient as a Gryffindor. The hat sounded like it enjoyed annoying people; but it hardly ever got the chance, since most first years were too nervous to be annoyed. Mordecai pictured the wand movement and incantation for a fire charm in his mind to try and get a message across.
But you're as dark as a "SLYTHERIN!"
As McGonagall swept the hat off his head and Slytherin applauded, Mordecai couldn't help but think that something very important had just been decided, and that he was the only one who didn't know what it was.
As Mordecai approached the Slytherin table, he saw that it was much fuller than in his time, as were the other tables; apparently the last years of the war had taken quite a toll on the wizarding population. Unfortunately, this also meant that he would have to sit next to either Malfoy or Snape.
Mordecai had just reached the seat next to Malfoy when McGonagall called out the last student's name (the first years had been sorted before Mordecai and the other transfer student).
"Sultzey, James!"
Mordecai glanced up in surprise just in time to see the author of Dueling with Minds take a seat and don the Sorting Hat. A quick look around the hall revealed that only Severus Snape, Remus Lupin and a few older Ravenclaws recognized the name.
"Do you know him?" Malfoy queried.
''No, but I've read one of his books.''
"Books? What has he written?"
''Several books on mind magic, though I've only read one."
At that, Malfoy flopped his head onto his plate and groaned loudly. It was a distinctly un-Malfoyish gesture, the sort that Mordecai might be able to use for blackmail when he got back to the future, if he had a camera.
Apparently the other Slytherins thought so too, as the event had attracted quite a bit of attention, and one even dived for a camera, but Malfoy was back up and looking his aristocratic best before the device made it into the open.
"What's happened, Lucius?" a boy with jet black hair and icy blue eyes asked from across the table.
"Another legilimens! Another two legilimens!"
Everyone within hearing range stared at Malfoy for several long moments, as if hoping he would announce that it was all a big joke. When he didn't, they shifted their gazes to Mordecai, and a moment later began studiously avoiding eye-contact as they edged as far away from him as they could at the crowded table.
''Er…" Mordecai began, feeling like he should say something, "did I do something?"
"Having Snape poking around in our heads and blackmailing half the school is bad enough!" an impeccably groomed black-haired boy who slightly resembled Sirius exclaimed, "we don't want any more of you lot around!"
Malfoy spared a moment to glare at the speaker before taking a more diplomatic approach, "I do not recommend following in his footsteps. He can hardly walk down to breakfast without being cursed by one of the people he has not blackmailed, and none of the fourteen girls he has asked out has said yes." Mordecai was willing to bet the last was a very well-quoted statistic.
Social outcast or not, Mordecai didn't want to be grouped in with Snape on principle, "He looks like his footsteps would be pretty greasy, anyway."
After a bit of nervous chuckling from the Slytherins, the black-haired boy asked, "So you say you're not going to be snooping around inside our heads?''
"No, I won't."
An uncomfortable pause followed and most of the listeners gave him skeptical looks, before the boy with the icy-blue eyes broke the silence, "The hat's taking a long time." It certainly was; James Sultzey had been wearing it for at least five minutes.
As the Sorting Hat sat unmoving the students grew restless and the sound of chatter began to fill the hall. Even Lucius Malfoy was beginning to show some signs of impatience after ten minutes. At long last, the Sorting Hat decided on "SLYTHERIN!"
As Sultzey passed by on his way to the last seat, blue-eyes asked what had taken so long and the legilimens answered, "We were having an interesting philosophical discussion." The Slytherins spent several moments exchanging looks that plainly said 'he's a nut,' and then burst into laughter.
Afterwards, the rest of the Slytherins seemed to open up to Mordecai and he learned that the boy with the blue eyes was Daren Nott and the one that resembled Sirius was Regulus Black. Daren told him that all positions on the Slytherin Quidditch team were open every year, so that they always had the best players in the house; occasionally, a position would change in mid-year if the players thought it would help their odds.
As the feast drew to a close, Dumbledore stood to address the school. "Good evening, and welcome to a new year at Hogwarts. After last years' regrettable incident (here Dumbledore paused to allow the sniggers and chuckles to die down), Professor Barone will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," a heavyset man with pronounced eyebrows and straw-colored hair stood to mild applause. "At the insistence of Auror Crouch, there will be an auror on site at all times to look for suspicious behavior," Dumbledore announced in the tone of voice that said 'It's not my fault and I don't like it either' as a wiry, suspicious looking man with dark eyes that darted in every direction, as if trying to focus on everything at once rose to his feet; as he did so, many students, mostly Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs cheered and applauded wildly, while others, mostly Slytherins and Ravenclaws eyed him suspiciously. Mordecai doubted that that many of the Ravenclaws would be Death Eater sympathizers, but many of them were probably intelligent enough to know what could happen when the Ministry started interfering with things.
As his gaze fell on the Gryffindor table, Mordecai saw James Potter looking fixedly at him while he applauded. No doubt he did not have the foresight of a Ravenclaw.
–––––––––––––
1975
"Snivellus," Lucius said, causing a section of inconspicuous stone wall to slide aside, revealing the entrance to the Slytherin common room; Snape was obviously not well-liked.
As Mordecai passed through, following the others to the boys' dormitory, he noted that hardly anything had changed about the room in eighteen years: it was the same long, low, dark stone hall that looked like the part of a movie set that villains would use to plan world domination and laugh evilly.
Mordecai and James Sultzey followed Daren down an unnecessarily long, torch-lit corridor to a door labeled 'sixth-years;' passing through, they emerged into a pentagonal room with a door in each wall.
"The bathroom is through that door," Daren explained, "and the other three doors lead to the dormitories. Antonin and I have that one and Snivelly is in that one, so you'll want to use the one in the middle."
"I suppose rooming with 'Snivelly' isn't an option," James noted with amusement as he walked into the dorm.
"Someone doesn't know how to decorate," Mordecai said as he followed; the room itself was made with dark grey stone, the two beds had dark brown frames and were hung with dark green, and nightstands were quite dark as well and all the colors clashed rather badly. He drew his wand and changed the color of the frames to silver, as James exchanged the hangings for dark velvety green ones that were much more attractive than the originals.
"What classes are you taking?" James asked as he swapped his robes for nightclothes with a flick of his wand.
"Charms, Transfigurations, DADA, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures," Mordecai answered as he got ready for bed the muggle way.
"The same, except charms," James pulled a miniature book out of his pocket and returned it to its proper size.
"I think they forgot to bring in your trunk," Mordecai observed.
"Didn't see a point in bringing one, when I have expansion and feather-light charms on my pockets."
But the misty legilimency field surrounding James didn't show any such charms. 'Looking' closely, Mordecai saw that there were small, nearly invisible distortions in the field that created a large number of blind spots around James' body, no doubt concealing the charms; and, "How do you have charms on your clothes when you just transfigured them?" because transfiguring things broke any spells placed on them.
"A bit of inventiveness," was all James answered before climbing into bed with the book and pulling the curtains shut.
As Mordecai followed suit, he wondered if the mysterious occurrences that were always happening around him couldn't give him a break for a little…